It pays to have a Tory council

Over the past 6 years, the government has been slashing local council funding. On average funding has been cut by 30% so far, and is due to be cut another 56% over the next 5 years. The cuts are so bad that even David Cameron’s own mother has been protesting against the cuts. Thankfully the cuts have not been equal though. In the five most deprived areas of the country, the cuts have been on average £336 a head, compared to £7 a head in the most deprived areas. It’s no coincidence that the deprived areas have Labour councils while the richest areas have Conservative councils. Mwhahaha.

The government has been getting a lot of heat from its back bench MPs about the funding cuts – presumably even nice middle class people have noticed that slashing funding for libraries, children’s centres, schools and elderly care is a bad thing. The MPs are in fear of losing their seats at the next election, so David Cameron had to find some money to stop that. And he certainly has targeted his funding at saving those MPs.

£300m has been found from somewhere to help the councils who are suffering due to the Tory cuts. But the funding isn’t going to the areas in the most need of financial help, but rather to the ones most in need of political help. The councils in the five most deprived areas – the Labour run Hull, Knowsley, Liverpool, Manchester and Middlesbrough councils will receive a grand total of zero pounds. At the same time, the councils in the five least deprived areas – the Conservative run Chiltern, Elmbridge, Hart, Waverley and Wokingham get a total of £5.3m. In total 83% of the funding is going to Tory councils. Mwhahaha.